Atmel Introduces a New Family of 0.7V tinyAVR Microcontrollers

Atmel(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) announced today a new family
of tinyAVR(R) microcontrollers. These AVR(R) devices are targeted at
applications that run from a single battery, such as AA, AAA, or coin
cell. The first member of this family is the ATtiny43U. It is a
perfect fit for portable battery powered consumer applications like
phone accessories, remote controls, sporting goods and personal care
products. ATtiny43U has 4-Kbytes of Flash memory and 64 bytes of
In-System programmable EEPROM.

A regular AA or AAA battery has a voltage of up to 1.8V fully
charged. When energy is drawn from the battery, the battery voltage
drops as the battery discharges, down to 0.7V where there is hardly
any energy at all left in the battery. The ATtiny43U has an on-chip
boost regulator that works from battery voltages between 0.7 and
1.8V. The regulator converts the low battery voltage up to 3V, this
is sufficiently high to effectively operate the AVR MCU, its
peripherals and I/Os. The boost regulator can deliver enough current
to the I/O pins to directly drive LEDs and electric motors. The
ATtiny43U also features a 10-bit ADC, two 8-bit timer counters with
PWM outputs, SPI, I2C interface, internal temperature sensor, and has
up to 8 MIPS throughput running from a 0.7V battery.

"With the introduction of the Ultra Low Voltage tinyAVR
microcontrollers we are expanding the popular AVR product family into
a new market segment. The ATtiny43U features an internal regulator
that removes the need for multiple batteries or complex external
boost regulators, this reduces the physical size, time to market, and
bill of material for battery powered applications," said Jukka
Eskelinen Director, tinyAVR Product Marketing.

Like all the other AVR microcontrollers, the ATtiny43U features
an on-chip debug system for easy, fast, and robust development. All
tinyAVR microcontrollers use the standard AVR microcontroller
development tools. The AVR Studio(R) AVR integrated development
environment is available free of charge on Atmel's website.

Availability and Pricing

Samples for the ATtiny43U are available now in a QFN20 package.
Volume prices for 10k units are USD $1.00.

About Atmel

Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of
microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory
and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's
broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is
able to provide the electronics industry with complete system
solutions focused on consumer, industrial, security, communications,
computing and automotive markets.

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